March Madness Research Paper

When you hear that March is around the corner, what pops up in your head? Right: March Madness. March Madness today is a big part of our American culture and is expanding more and more each year. This basketball tournament was set up to draw more attention to the sport The founder of the NCAA tournament, James Naismith, probably did not expect it to take off like it did, into what it is today. The history of the tournament goes back decades, and time after time draws the attention of more and more people. As the tournament grew, so did technology. Technology began to take over and the tournament started to turn more into a business than just a game to find out a champion. Social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and the whole internet …show more content…
The tournament stayed with only the top 8 teams in the country for the first 12 years of existence. As the years went on, the tournament gradually added more sports, and by 2001 they were up to 65 teams. The 64th and 65th teams had to play a game to fill the final spot for the tournament. Today the total teams are up to 68, with a few play in games. The tournament did not originally get the name “March Madness”. The name came from a high school association out of Illinois, and slowly picked up from that. Today it is referred to as “March Madness” and “The Big Dance”. Throughout the history of this tournament, the sport has grown in popularity, as well as funding, making it a big deal in today’s time. In today’s time social media runs us and consumes us all throughout the day. We are always on our phones or on the internet. The NCAA has taken advantage of the opportunities that have been thrown out in front of them. The social media took over in the last 5 to 10 years, and has changed the sport and tournament in many ways. During the month of March and the first bit of April, many companies and social media accounts go “Mad,” so to speak. The tournament is televised on 4 separate television channels consisting of CBS, TBS, TNT, and TrueTV. These four channels televise all 67 games throughout the tournament while it is going on. This in itself consumes the population, because it allows people to be able to watch all of the games live on TV. Also, …show more content…
This paper deals with the functionalist side of things, which means it is focused on the positives of the sport and what it brings to the table. In this paper, it talks about how social media does a good job at promoting the NCAA Tournament and brings interest into the event. Social media during this 3 week-long period is a “Mad House”, so to speak. Facebook is filled with awesome pictures and cool videos from the events, and Twitter blows up with tweets of fans mentioning their favorite teams in their tweets. Also, these accounts advertise a lot during this time because it is a great opportunity for people to see certain things from other companies they might be interested in, like Capital One, Wendy’s, and Dove hair products, etc. Overall, this event gets the networks pumping with fun new ideas and advertisements to get the fans more involved, so that more and more revenue comes in each year. What was not talked about in this paper was that this great opportunity for networks can also deal with the conflicting side of things, as well. Not everyone is going to have the same outlook on everything. Some people may get offended by certain tweets that talk bad about someone, a team, or a favorite player. Companies also go the extra mile to try and advertise certain ways that might offend other companies, as well. To sum it up, not everyone will be happy with everything all the time, but in the big picture, social media has expanded the importance